EFF: Using Red Ants a sign of an uncaring and abusive government

25 May 2016 - 11:24 By TMG Digital

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said “it supports the resistance that the community has shown to the forced removals” in Hammanskraal.It also called on the City of Tshwane and the Red Ants to back off and “allow the people to settle in peace”. The EFF said on Tuesday that the city’s “usage of Red Ants” is “a sign of an uncaring‚ violate and abusive government”. “In a country of high levels of destitution‚ landlessness and homelessness‚ it is unacceptable that a democratic government would employ the same tactics of forced removals as an illigitimate regime like apartheid‚” it said after an uneasy calm descended on Hammanskraal after violent eviction protests left two dead and six critically injured on Monday.“Often‚ when the poor fight back‚ resisting the violence of the state and of the very everyday deprivation and destitution‚ society blames them. If there was indeed any caring leadership in Tshwane‚ which was sensitive to people's struggles‚ it could have known and found a better way‚ a human way to resolve the problem‚” it added.The protests‚ which saw five people arrested overnight for‚ among other charges‚ murder‚ began when the City of Tshwane‚ using the infamous Red Ants company‚ demolished hundreds of shacks as they evicted hundreds of people from municipal-owned land.Red Ants Security and Evictions Services chief operations pfficer Fuzile Balintulo said the company has been told to stop evictions on Tuesday for the safety of their members‚ and denied earlier reports that the two people killed were its employees...

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